Losing Out
by ToinKs
Summary: ONE SHOT FIC: Tsukushi runs from a heated conflict and towards a sheltered solitude she knows so well. On one hand, there's Tsukasa. On the other, Rui. In another collision of the love triangle, who loses out? R&R please!


**Author's Notes:** It's another itchy bite from the HYD bug and I'm back with another one-shot fic. It's weird really...how these ideas just come popping into my head and I rush to get a paper or a go to a nearby computer and jot it all down before it all fades away to nothingness. Yeah, I'm psychotic and I never have a plot in mind! It's hard actually because of the unpredictability...I have to just let the story and the dialogue weave itself together.

Okay, enough with the senseless ramblings from this loony! Here you go with another episode of the famous love triangle! **ENJOY!!!** (Oh, and please leave me a review!)

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**LOSING OUT**

Makino Tsukushi looked up from her fetal position as a gust of wind blew on her back. She need not turn around to know. It only meant one thing.

_Rui… _

The tall, lanky guy entered, quietly closed the door and sat down beside her, laying his violin case by his side. He knew, when she had been missing all day, that this was where she most likely will be, sitting, thinking and sulking.

Which was exactly what Tsukushi had been doing.

They both stared into space, letting the silence just envelop them in ease only each other's company can generate. She buried her head in her arms, as if to hide from the world, from her shrunken little world right now that included only this young man who had always been her guide and her anchor. It was embarrassing to always call upon Rui as her savior whenever she was in the dumps or caught in a trap. It was just unfair and selfish. But sometimes, even if she didn't call, he knew. Somehow, he always knows where to find her and give her just the very thing she needs.

She couldn't help but smile at little.

He waited patiently for her to speak, to free all that was confusing her inside. Or even if she chose not to speak, he would've stayed there, comforting her with his presence.

"Rui," Tsukushi lifted her head and started, "Tsukasa and I had a fight again."

It was nothing out of the common. The lovers fought like cat and dog at least once a week. But Rui understood how much this pained and ate her; and right now, all she needed was a listening ear. He merely nodded, allowing her to go on.

"This morning, in the school grounds, he screamed at me and called me names in front of the whole school. He just blew up like that." She snapped her fingers. "He deliberately humiliated me…"

"You know he didn't," Rui interjected calmly, breaking the long pause.

Tsukushi let out a sigh, knowing full well that her wise friend was right once again. "I know." Her voice sounded tired. "It's just that he had to make a big scene just because I had forgotten to meet him yesterday. I mean, I didn't actually forget; I had to work overtime to pay for the stack of plates that I accidentally dropped last week. Why couldn't he understand that?" She looked at him. "Is it so hard to understand?"

Silence.

What answer was Tsukushi waiting for?

"He probably didn't mean it," Rui supplied.

"I don't know Rui…" Tsukushi said in a low voice. "I don't know…"

Rui looked at her, surprised at such an open Tsukushi who almost never showed vulnerability.

"He kept insisting that he could've paid for the plates and I should've just ditched work to go to our date. Ditch? I could've been fired!" She narrated animatedly. "It's never that simple! But does he get it? No!!! He just insists that I'm making up excuses once again!"

Rui could just see it all in his mind: Tsukushi in her dango shop uniform yelling over the counter at the top of her lungs at the enraged Tsukasa who is shouting just as loud, slamming his fist on the counter and in the process, scaring all the poor customers away. It was ridiculous and laugh-provoking really, except that Tsukushi took it a little seriously this time.

"It's always the same thing. He just doesn't trust me." Tsukushi slumped helplessly against the railings. "I'm getting tired of fighting with him, of shouting at him, of trying to put some sense into that thick-skulled, pineapple-styled head of his! Can't he see that I'm already trying my best?"

Rui couldn't help but smile a little at Tsukushi's statement. Tsukushi, seeing Rui's bemused look, couldn't help but chuckle at herself.

Tsukushi found herself warming up inside. It was that same smile on Rui's face, that twinkle in his marble eyes that had once caught her. It was that nonchalant and impassive behavior that had intrigued Tsukushi to what mystery Hanazawa Rui is. It was him that Tsukushi first loved.

She found herself flooded with emotions, of questions that were perhaps never answered. But just as she wallowed in the good memories, certain images of Rui together with his friends appeared in her head. There he was with the almighty F4, namely Nishikado Soujiro, Mimisaka Akira and Doumyouji Tsukasa. _Doumyouji Tsukasa_. Tsukushi felt a tugging in her heart. And as she focused on that scowl occupying his usual grumpy face in her mental image, somehow, Tsukushi couldn't help but feel a certain fondness over that conceited, overprotective jerk she had for a boyfriend. Sure, he was hot-tempered and often unreasonable, but he was sincere, honest, genuine, loving and cute.

Yes, she admitted, he is definitely cute.

And he is willing to give up_ everything_ just to be with her.

As Tsukushi was watching her own memories, she was completely unaware of an amused Rui watching fleeting emotions pass through her face. She frowned then grinned and now blushed, a pinkish tint glowing on her face. Rui felt like all the worries in the world of his could also fade away.

It was at this time that Rui knew Tsukushi couldn't be mad anymore. It's the same thing with Tsukasa. They both had fiery tempers and yet when they clash against each other; they couldn't help but simmer down a little at the thought of hurting each other. It was probably what made their combination highly inflammable, volatile, and yet strangely compatible.

"Go home," Rui's voice seeped into her thoughts, waking her from her reverie. "He's waiting for you…"

Tsukushi looked at Rui with gratefulness and a light of realization in her brown eyes. Tsukasa, yes, he was surely waiting for her at home. She smiled openly for the first time that day. She was happy he had talked to her. Hanazawa Rui was her savior, her conscience, and her guardian angel. With a quick hug and a whispered "Thanks" at the surprised Rui, Tsukushi got up and ran home.

The door to their stairwell slowly closed.

Rui found himself suddenly wrapped with a coat of loneliness as he watched Tsukushi's retreating figure disappear around the corner. He made sure she was gone before he faced his own inner demons. He had felt a tight grip on his heart, a jolt of pain, as he told her to go home, but he prioritized friendship much more than his own jumbled feelings. He was weird that way. It was something he could not explain, but he knew as long as she is happy, he could live off her happiness.

As the skies darkened and the wind chilled for the coming of the night, Rui took out his violin and played. He played with his mind, with his heart, with his soul. He closed his eyes as he spoke through the music his skilled hands produced. He allowed the carefully chosen notes to carry the pain he felt, the sadness he endured, and the tears he could not let out.

The evocative and haunting melody floated down the hall, healing his minor lesions with its powers. Rui couldn't help but wonder how everything had happened so fast that he didn't have the time to sort out and realize his feelings for her. She used to love and adore him, wait for him in the stairwell, dream about him at night, but he was blindly loving another person at that time. When he had finally learned of his feelings towards her, he was a minute behind; she had already fallen for someone else.

What hurt more was that she had fallen for his bestfriend.

He was living proof that the game of destiny is cruel. It played him for a fool. With recondite feelings churning up inside him, he couldn't help but voice out his thoughts. "If somehow, we _are_ meant to be like what my heart has been shouting all along, then why did I lose her?"

Nothing but the eerie silence echoed his doubts.

Then, with utmost clarity that tore on his already frayed emotions, the voice inside his head replied.

"You didn't. You let her go…"

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**A/N:** _YOWCH._Painful isn't it? Sorry. But that's what the brain supplied, I could only go and obey. **REVIEW** please! And if you have the time, read my other fics too!


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